BOURSE.] CEREMONIAL DUST. f)37 



DUST FROM CHURCHES ITS USE. 



The last ceremonial powder to be described is dust from the ground, 

 as among some of the Australians who smear their heads with pipe 

 clay as a sign of mourning. 1 



The French writers mention among the ceremonies of the Natchez 

 one in which the Great Suu &quot;gathered dust, which he threw back over 

 his head, and turned successively to the four quarters of the world in 

 repeating the same aet of throwing dust. 1 - 



Mention is made of &quot;an old woman who acted as beadle&quot; of a church, 

 who &quot;once brought to the bedside of a dying person some of the sweep 

 ings from the Hoor of the altar, to ease and short. MI a very lingering 

 death.&quot; :) 



Altar dust was a very ancient remedy for disease. Frornmaun says \ 

 that, of the four tablets found in a temple of Esculapius, one bore this 

 inscription: &quot;Lncio att ecto lateris dolore ; veniret et ex ara tollerit 

 cinerem et una cum vino comisceret et poueret supra latus; et con- 

 valuit,&quot; etc. 4 



It seems then that the medieval use of altar dust traces back to the 

 Roman use of altar ashes. 



So hard is it to eradicate from the minds of savages ideas which have 

 become ingrafted upon their nature that we need not be surprised to 

 read in the Jesuit relations of affairs in Canada (1(&amp;gt;0(&amp;gt;-17(H J that, at 

 the Mission of Saint Francis, where the Indians venerated the memory 

 of a saintly woman of their own race, Catheraine Tagikoo-ita, &quot;pour 

 guerir les malades que les nhnedes ordinaires lie smilagent point, on 

 avale dans 1 eau ou dans un bouillon un peu de la poussiere de son 

 tombeau.&quot; 



A few persons are to be found who endeavor to collect the (lust from 

 the feet of one hundred thousand Brahmins. One way of collecting this 

 dust is by spreading a cloth before the door of a house where a great 

 multitude of Brahmins are assembled at a feast, and, as each Brahmin 

 comes out, he shakes the dust from his feet as he treads upon this cloth. 

 Many miraculous cures are declared to have been performed upon per- 

 sons using this dust. 5 



A widow among the Armenian devil- worshipers is required u to strew 

 dust on her head and to smear her face with clay.&quot;&quot; 



CLAY-EATING. 



The eating of clay would appear to have once prevailed all over the 

 world. In places the custom lias degenerated into ceremonial or is to 



Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 2, p. 273. 



&quot;Gayarre, Louisiana, 1851, p. 31)8. 



3 Notes and Queries. 4tb ser.. vol. 8. p. 505. 



* Tractatus de Fascinatione. Nuremberg, 1675. 197. 



6 Sontbey. quoting Wuril. in Buckle s Common place Hook. London, 1H4!(. 2d ser., p. 521. 



Xortli American, October 27, 1888. 



